Local Bands

A night of demented behaviour at the Face Bar

By Linda Serck
April 02, 2009

Classic psychobilly with a lashing of punk will be screeching through the speakers of The Face Bar in Reading on Saturday.

Demented Are Go! are a band whose performance will be etched on to your brain forever, and their song subjects range from skateboarding in the rain to preserving your loved ones for future enjoyment.

Supporting them will be Kent’s finest gothic psychobilly upstarts Hollywood Suicide – kicking you up the bum from the moment they hit the stage.

Also on the bill are the Devil Wrays, a new exciting psychobilly band from Brighton who are picking up good reviews wherever they play.

First up on stage are London’s The Optic Nerves, playing with a new line-up.

Tickets are £10 and doors open at 8pm.

More at www.myspace.com/goodwreckintonight.

Coopers are the Bestival

Imagine you’re 14, you’re in a band and this summer your average audience will be in their thousands.

This is the reality for Reading teen rockers Coopers Rage, who will be playing at the 20,000-strong Bestival on the Isle of Wight this September.

“We’re over the moon, we’re just thrilled to bits to be part of it,” enthuses 14-year-old frontman Dan Bartlett, whose band mates Henry Colborne and Ed Roberts are also

14 – apart from drummer Andy Wilder, who’s 16.

The three-day festival is one of the largest in the UK and Cooper’s Rage are sharing the billing with Lily Allen, Massive Attack and Kraftwerk.

Playing on the first day – Friday, September 11 – the young band have bagged an excellent slot on the band stand at 6.30pm.

“It’s the biggest thing we’ve done,” says Dan. “We’ve been at Festinho, which is a small festival, but this is the biggest gig that we’ve ever been involved in, so we’re so excited!”

The festival is curated by Radio One’s Rob Da Bank, who was able to listen to the band’s demo CD thanks to them winning a recent battle of the bands contest in Reading.

I was on the judging panel for that contest, at Plug ‘n’ Play, and was amazed by the band’s skill and performance. Their prize was to record a demo at the Plug ‘n’ Play studios, something they’d never had before.

“Recently winning the Reading battle of the bands we sent off a CD,” says Dan, “[Our manager] has worked with him a few times before so had contacts, so we got into it that way.”

Despite their young age the band have been together for three-and-a-half years and, I don’t know about you, but when I was 10 the idea of forming a band was far from my mind.

But Coopers Rage have always been driven to forge a career in music. Henry the bassist and Ed the lead guitarist were in a previous band called Rocktational, and Dan was even singing on TV as a child.

“I’ve always sung along to stuff and, when I was seven-years-old, I was on GMTV in a singing competition called Top Stars,” says Dan, who has also performed in the West End in the stage production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

“Also my parents bought me a guitar for Christmas once,” he adds.

“I just picked it up and started playing, got a few lessons and so really got into music that way.”

As well as Bestival, Coopers Rage are also booked to play Rob Da Bank’s Camp Bestival in July at Lulworth Castle.

They’ll also be appearing at Suffolk’s Festinho, a boutique festival in aid of the ABC Trust and their third appearance there.

Locally, Coopers Rage are performing at the Wargrave Festival on Saturday, June 27, and they’ve reached the semi-finals in Maidenhead’s battle of the bands, taking place in May.

If they reach the finals they’ll be performing before thousands at Kidwells Park in June for the Maidenhead Carnival.

While many musicians will only ever play before a couple of hundred spectators, here is a young band who have the potential to play stadiums.

Find out more at: www.myspace.com/coopersrage

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